Other religions and whatnot.

[Truthseeker76]

Is there anyone here who has truly studied all religions, and after your studies you found Christianity to be the one true religion? There are 150 world religions with more than one million practicing members. There are 33, 830 different christian denominations. Which one is right ? I am confused, why did God create the world only to end up having to kill himself to convince himself that we are worth saving? He had to impregnate a woman with himself in order to sacrifice himself to himself. he could not just forgive Eve for eating forbidden fruit, he had to damn the human race and then kill himself to save us. Please tell me how this makes sense ! I am truly searching, but certain things just do not make sense. So basically Jesus is his own father that wants you to symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood. If you accept him all your evil will be washed away.You are only evil because Eve listened to a talking snake and ate from a magical tree and damned everyone for it. Please do not just thump me over the head with random scripture. I am looking for a truly logical explanation to this. Thank you.

 

[alexwylde]

I think you are struggling with (as am I) the conservative/fundamental/literalist influence on your understanding of Christianity. (I'm not saying that those viewpoints are wrong--just that they don't jive with me.) Evolution is a naturally occurring reality of this earth, and hence, I don't literally believe that Eve ate an apple that damned all man. I think the Adam-Eve story is meant to illustrate how inherently rebellious and sinful man/woman really is. I believe that we have this nature because we are also inherently ungodly in this universe. ... I guess this is my primitive understanding of my faith.

As far as denominations, I strongly reccomend "non-denomitional". It makes things easy.

I personally have not studied all the religions of the world. But I think that before you search for a religion, you must first answer a question: Do you believe there is something more than this world? Something more than what you can see? If you do, then I think it is out of respect to yourself that you should try to find out what this extra "something" is. And do so humbly. Then when you do find what you think is right, you can say "Out of the information available to me, and after my own contemplation(/prayer?), I believe that X is the most correct and plausible religion." That way, you have essentially done all that you CAN do. And therefore you can feel shameless/honest/confident with yourself about where you are at. And if you haven't done all that you can do, then I believe that you are being dishonest to yourself.

Those are my two cents. Good luck!

 

[Quaero]

Is there anyone here who has truly studied all religions, and after your studies you found Christianity to be the one true religion?

Still working on it, Islam is perhaps the strongest religion on pure theology, as the Qu'arn is a very strong piece of rhetoric and is carefully constructed to justify their faith. The Bible on the other had is (minus a fair bit of the OT) the personal interpretations of those who seek God. I like to view the gospel (I'm a tad liberal btw) as a collection of spiritual biographies that contain the word of God, and reflect upon the word of God, but are not the Literal word of God.

I love many aspect of eastern religion, the emphasis on self enlightenment, the value placed on moments of solitude and reflection. However because of the grass-roots origin of religions such as Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto there are a fantastic amount of contradictions and doctrinal oddities.

There are 150 world religions with more than one million practicing members. There are 33, 830 different Christian denominations. Which one is right ?

Wow didn't know that there were that many Christian denominations.... I suppose It would be less a matter of which 'one' is right, and which ones are wrong. I'm drawn to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, but in essence I feel that where you worship is less important that what you worship, and only you can decide that.

I am confused, why did God create the world only to end up having to kill himself to convince himself that we are worth saving? He had to impregnate a woman with himself in order to sacrifice himself to himself. he could not just forgive Eve for eating forbidden fruit, he had to damn the human race and then kill himself to save us. Please tell me how this makes sense !

There is a great deal of books, web posts, dissertations and forum debates on the events you mentioned. I can't answer them myself, I lack the knowledge of Christianity to give you a satisfactory answer, I'm sure another can fill you in.

I'm reading the confessions of St. Augustine atm, it's a fascinating book that answers a lot of questions (if you can find a copy its well worth a read!).

! I am truly searching, but certain things just do not make sense.

Join the club ! Dont try to rationalise every aspect of theology just yet. Imagine it like teaching somebody English, start with the basics not with superlatives, perfect tenses and double negatives!

So basically Jesus is his own father that wants you to symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood. If you accept him all your evil will be washed away.

Yes.

You are only evil because Eve listened to a talking snake and ate from a magical tree and damned everyone for it.

The alternative is that everything just happed, life appeared from rocks and everything we know exists due to massive cosmic flukes.

If you want to dumb it down anything sounds stupid, Adam and Eve is (IMHO) a metaphorical story against striving for the forbidden. Besides there are two creation stories in the bible (gen 1 and 2), so we know both cant have occurred.

Please do not just thump me over the head with random scripture. I am looking for a truly logical explanation to this. Thank you.

Truly logical explanation for faith? Logic is in they eye of the beholder, some see bible literalism as logic, other science, some still believe the world is flat. Logic is what you can deduce from what is available, and how it makes sense to you. Besides I cant quote scripture, only Shakespeare

 

[Quaero]

Logic is a branch of mathematics. It allows certain claims to be proven true, but only if the premises from which the logic begins are accepted as axiom or proven elsewhere. Science relies somewhat on logic, but it is not the same thing. Science relies mostly on inductive reasoning, whereas logic is deductive.

I suppose it would be fair to say that not everyone is satisfied with logic and science alone.

logic
Noun
1. the branch of philosophy that analyses the patterns of reasoning

amongst a myriad of other definitions, logic is not solely a mathematical concept, although the pretenses required for deductive logic are often quantifiable mathematically. Logic utilities deduction and inference, hence is not necessarily empirically provable (yes there are exceptions).

Science relies mostly on inductive reasoning

So inductive reasoning is a sound form of rationale? Once again it depends on the initial premise for the inductive argument, the Black Swan Theory was considered a strong inductive argument in its day. Now we have defined logic has this helped anyone?

 

[drich0150]

I am confused, why did God create the world only to end up having to kill himself to convince himself that we are worth saving? He had to impregnate a woman with himself in order to sacrifice himself to himself. he could not just forgive Eve for eating forbidden fruit, he had to damn the human race and then kill himself to save us. Please tell me how this makes sense ! I am truly searching, but certain things just do not make sense. So basically Jesus is his own father that wants you to symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood. If you accept him all your evil will be washed away.You are only evil because Eve listened to a talking snake and ate from a magical tree and damned everyone for it. Please do not just thump me over the head with random scripture. I am looking for a truly logical explanation to this. Thank you.

Look at "God" as a title, and not a just a name. In that title there are 3 deities that can best be described by the roles and relationship they have with each other, and to us.

First is God the Father. His title or role is what we would refer to as a father. It is his will that takes precedence as witnessed in Jesus's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.. When he asked the "father" to take this cup from him. (Or take the responsibility or need for his blood to be sacrifice.) But in the end Jesus asks that the "father's will be done."

Next is God the Son, or Jesus. His role emulates that a son in ancient times. Often times a or The son carried out the will of the father with all of his rights and authority.. for all intents and purposes The father and son are the same person, They commanded the same respect, owned the same lands, The son was apart of the father.

And Finally God the Holy Spirit. His role is to interact or to be in direct contact with us. it is to him we pray, He that intercedes, performs miracles and delivers understanding. He is a piece of God or the "Spirit Of God" that we can have for ourselves..

All Three are distinct personalities, but all three are equally God. (Title not name.) So God (Title not name) is made up of three deities.
Kinda like in any three dimensional object there is Length, width, and height. It takes all three separate dimensions to put a tangible object physically in this realm. There are three dimensions to any physical object, but only one object, even though it can be measured in three different ways.

So keep in mind God is a title not a name.

Next we have to look at the nature of sin.

God the Father (GtF)determined that anything not in his want or will, will be deemed "sin."
Now understand not all sin is evil, but all evil is sin.. Evil simply put, is a malicious intent to commit sin.

Now because GtF is a righteous God, He has to punish all sin as the same.. Whether it be the evil of Satan or a 1000 Hitler's or Eve's mistake in the garden. All sin has the same end. Because what really separates "the good sinners" from the "Evil ones" Our Perception of intent? Truth be told most of the sin we do indulge in is fraught with evil intent. So what separates a "evil lie" and a serial killer? It's is our own over inflated sense of self righteous goodness.. Because we can look at the serial killer and say:"I'm basically a good person, and because I'd never kill 30 people, that guy must be really bad." But, in actuality we are breaking all of the same principles as the serial killer.

To which a truly righteous God has to punish all of those who sin despite reason or our perceived level that a sin was committed in.. Because if he let your or my "evil lie" be randomly forgiven then he's have to let all sin/evil have the same pass, even that of the Lucifer. (If he were a righteous God.)

This is one of the reasons something innocent has to die for something sinful.. There needs to be a balance or a price paid for being outside GtF's will. (He establishes this need in Old testament sacrifice.)

Now enter in "Free will" By definition Free will places us our side the will of the Father at some point. Otherwise Our will would be that of the Fathers, and we would need a savior or constant sacrifice.

So, GtF Having this planed from the beginning Places us in a world where we get to operate outside of his will if we choose, but allows the freedom to remain apart of creation if we choose to love Him.

Why? Because God doesn't what to populate his presents with beings who don't want to be there, nor does he want to make people/beings want to be with him. We have to want it for ourselves. In order for to want to love God on our own accord we must have a viable or unobstructed choice to choose another option. That what this life is all about. Now being in a place where we have our own rights and having made our own choices, We will obviously make choices outside of God's will despite how hard we try. In God's economy Two rights don't erase a wrong. The only thing that takes away sin is Death, Blood, Sacrifice, Something Innocent, without Blemish dying for something sinful. This is why We have Jesus Now remember how God the Son's role parallels that of God the Father, and how in OT times a son's will and wants and the Father's will and wants are the same. In this instance The Father Who Loves his Son Sends him to us as a Perfect sacrifice, for us. He excepts because he loves All of those who would potentially Choose or Love God in a place that is seemingly outside of his realm or GtF reach, and even More He Loves his Father..

..So he Dies so that we may have an opportunity to live outside of the will of God, and still have a way back to God when we repent or return home.

 

[drich0150]

There are 33, 830 different christian denominations. Which one is right ?

If there is "forgiveness" to be found in the sacrifice of Jesus for true Evil (Malicious intent to commit sin) Then Wouldn't a righteous God find a way to "forgive" all of those who are trying to worship Him as best as thier Mind, Heart, Strength and spirits will allow?

The truth is none of them are 100% right. But that is the beautiful thing about true Christianity (not christian religion) You don't have to be 100% right all of the time like you do if you practice Islam or Hinduism or even Judaism.. We are called to love The Lord our God with all of our Minds, Hearts, Strength, and Spirit. If we recognize Jesus as our way of doing that, and can stick with the "greatest command" then no matter where we plug in, or what denomination we like, we will find the "True Church."

Granted some "religious denominations" make it harder than others to find God, but if you truly seek him he will be there for you, Just don't mistake worshiping God for going through the motions of religious practices.